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Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura visit classrooms at Edward J. Briscoe Elementary School before participating in a roundtable discussion on education leadership. (Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison) rmallison@star-telegram.com

Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura visit classrooms at Edward J. Briscoe Elementary School before participating in a roundtable discussion on education leadership. (Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison) rmallison@star-telegram.com

“This is very good — teaching them about similes and metaphors,” George W. Bush told Dotson as the fourth-graders watched. “I just asked them if they knew what they were, and all of them did. You are doing a fine job.”

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It was not a routine morning at the elementary school, a campus tucked in a working-class neighborhood in southeast Fort Worth. The Bushes talked to pre-kindergarten and fourth-grade students about the importance of reading, college and coloring before digging deep with Fort Worth education, community and philanthropy leaders about how to improve schools.

“I think reading is the new civil rights,” George W. Bush told participants of a round table before the discussion turned to how to bring strong principals to struggling schools.

Bush and institute leaders said they hope to work with districts in Texas and nationwide to help strengthen schools through supporting a push for programs that help train strong principals.

The principal can make a significant difference in a school. And so the question is, are school districts properly recruiting, training, and retaining effective principals? Our goal is to find out what works and spread it nationally.

Former President George W. Bush

“Principals are second only to teachers in their impact to student achievement,” said Anne Humphrey, director of education reform at the Bush Institute.

‘Good leaders hire good teachers’

Educators said the focus on school principals builds on current efforts to help students become strong readers. Fort Worth schools and the city have joined forces to fight childhood illiteracy.

Scribner, Price and Matt Rose, executive chairman of BNSF Railway, are leading the Fort Worth literacy project, which aims to have 100 percent of the school district’s third-grade students reading at grade level by 2025.

86,400 the number of students enrolled in Fort Worth school as of September

In Fort Worth schools, only 3 in 10 third-grade students are reading at grade level.

Scribner and Price welcomed the support from the Bush Institute.

“Good leaders hire good teachers,” said Scribner, adding that in schools that are succeeding there is always a strong principal.

Scribner said he wants to work to find creative ways to keep top principals in schools.

Price said while they are working on helping students from “zero to grade 8,” the community needs to raise schools for all students.

“Having the president here, and this research on principals, just adds fuel to the fire and begins to get more people’s attention,” Price said.

‘A once-in-a-lifetime experience’

Briscoe Elementary is described as a school focused on getting students to the next level despite the social and economic hurdles that often characterize struggling urban schools. Students are performing above the district average in reading on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.

For the 2016 reading assessment, 66 percent of Briscoe third-graders met the standard compared with the 61 percent districtwide. The state average was 74 percent.

I have been an educator for 18 years and I’ve never seen a president come to my school. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity … it is something they will never forget. He sat down and did art with the students and read to some of the students. This is something they will talk about forever.

Marion Mouton, principal of Briscoe Elementary

Education and community leaders said getting a visit from a former president can motivate students.

“Isn’t it amazing? For a child to have that opportunity to meet the president and the first lady,” Price said. “It’s incredible. It should inspire them greatly.”

Micaiah Tate, a 9-year-old in Dotson’s class, was star-struck.

“I was about to say, ‘How does it feel like to be president?’ she whispered to classmates after the former president left the room.

Asked how she felt about the visit, Tate said: “Like amazing, and it is kind of scary.”

Dotson, who shook hands with Bush, won’t forget the visit.

“That was amazing — it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she said.